CVE-2022-42735
📋 TL;DR
Apache ShenYu Admin allows low-privilege administrators to create users with higher privileges than their own due to improper privilege management. This vulnerability affects Apache ShenYu version 2.5.0, enabling privilege escalation within the administrative interface.
💻 Affected Systems
- Apache ShenYu
📦 What is this software?
Shenyu by Apache
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
An attacker with low-level admin access could create super-admin accounts, gaining full control over the ShenYu gateway and potentially compromising all managed services.
Likely Case
Malicious or compromised low-privilege administrators escalate their privileges to gain unauthorized access to sensitive configuration and management functions.
If Mitigated
With proper access controls and monitoring, privilege escalation attempts would be detected and prevented before causing significant damage.
🎯 Exploit Status
Requires existing low-privilege admin access. Exploitation involves standard API calls to create users with elevated privileges.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 2.5.1
Vendor Advisory: https://lists.apache.org/thread/2k8764jmckmc19qc8x51nlnngq71pcf7
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Upgrade to Apache ShenYu 2.5.1 or later. 2. Apply the patch from GitHub PR #3958 if upgrading is not immediately possible. 3. Restart the ShenYu service after applying the fix.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Restrict User Creation Permissions
allTemporarily disable user creation capabilities for low-privilege administrators until patching is complete.
Modify ShenYu Admin configuration to remove user creation permissions from low-privilege roles
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict network segmentation to isolate ShenYu Admin interface from untrusted networks
- Enable detailed audit logging for all user management operations and monitor for privilege escalation attempts
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check if running Apache ShenYu version 2.5.0 by examining the application version in the admin interface or configuration files.Check Version:
Check the ShenYu Admin interface or examine the application.properties file for version information.Verify Fix Applied:
Verify the version is 2.5.1 or later, and test that low-privilege administrators cannot create users with higher privileges than their own.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- User creation events where created user has higher privilege level than creator
- Unauthorized privilege escalation attempts in audit logs
Network Indicators:
- Unusual API calls to user creation endpoints from low-privilege accounts
SIEM Query:
Search for user creation events where source_user_privilege < target_user_privilege in ShenYu Admin logs